A DIFFICULT PROBLEM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 186, 7 August 1936, Page 6

A DIFFICULT PROBLEM.

(To tTi<2 Editor.)

It is a ray of liupe in these dark da,ys to find so many solid citizens of New Zealand awakening to the pitifully defenceless, condition of our country. Surely men must be grasping, at last,* the real value of that expensive and widely-discredited failure —the so-called League of Nations. Nevertheless, the defence of New Zealand is a problem not 'easily solved. So few of us seem able to appreciate the fact that in this, the most isolated State 011 the planet, an army is of no defensive value at all until a foreign invasion has become an accomplished fact—and by then, most probably, it is too late! The tiny two-cruiser squadron of the "New Zealand Navy" would be hardly adequate defence against the navies of Colombia or Salvador and we are utterly unable to build a defensive fleet of our own. Would it be a worth-while experiment really and strenuously to try for closer union in naval affairs with the mighty sea power of Britain? John Bull is an eminently fair-minded old gentleman and loves his colonies, and a voluntarily increased contribution to the huge annual expense of what is. after all, the only Navy we have got, would surely not be allowed to go without its just recognition. I know full well that there are hundreds of my countrymen ready to raise the crv that we cannot raise the question of further expenditure on defence until we have solved the urgent internal problems of unemployment and business recovery. All the same, it might be worth consideration whether the unemployed would be much better off when required to abide by the standard of living of an Asiatic coolie! L.O.F.